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This one is really neat! I originally started it as one of my October horror game picks but didn't get around to finishing it on time. I'm kind of regretting it though, because the second half is definitely the best part. The game is split into two halves, each of which you play through from a different characters perspective. Amy's story (the second half) was only added after the game was de-listed and rereleased as a publishing deal with Blumhouse's new games branch. It's clear the devs were able to use what they learnt from the development of the first half (Vivian's story) as they made the second half because it feels way more streamlined and scary.
The story follows two girls, Vivian and Amy, who break into their school to steal and use a ouija board. They end up summoning a ghost and getting sent to silent hill-esque worlds that manifest as traumatic memories. Vivian's story takes you to a version of the school from the 90s, before a fire that killed alot of students. As you travel through the halls, you begin to gradually unravel the story behind what caused the fire. I always like when games mainly communicate their narrative between notes not meant for the player to see, and that's how its done here. They reveal everything in a pretty linear fashion though, which is disappointing. It's always fun to find fragments of information and have to piece them together yourself to understand what happened.
The school in Vivian's story is pretty massive, but doesn't really need to be. There's alot of spaces like the gym hall which are huge but only have 1 thing you actually need to interact with to progress. It makes it a little easy to follow the guideline you're supposed to be walking along in order to solve each puzzle. Walk into a room, find a locker that needs a key. Walk into the next room, the key is in there. Alot of games that definitely influenced this one like Silent Hill/Resident Evil will jumble up the different components you need to solve each puzzle. Instead of immediately finding the key in those games, you'll find a bee in a jar that you needed for a puzzle you found 30 minutes ago behind a portrait of a scary dog. Thankfully, it seems they figured this out for the second half of the game, Amy's story.
Amy's story takes place in her childhood home, which is really small. Theres maybe 8 rooms total? But they use the space in such an effective way that it's able to be the same length as Vivian's story while being much more engaging. There's some really good gating that allows the house to gradually unravel as you solve puzzles. You initially start downstairs, then outside, then you go to the basement, the second floor, the attic. The way every corner of the space is utilised also makes it feel alot more claustrophobic, which helps with the spookiness. There's a creature following you around that you'll need to sneak around from time to time, but it never overstays its welcome. It caught me off guard like 3 times too. The puzzles in Amy's half are intertwined with eachother in a way that makes parsing through the information really rewarding. You'll find a locked case and won't learn the combination until 2 puzzles later. Everything is so densely packed into the rooms of the house that it would be possible to immediately find the combination, but knowing where to look is the challenge. It's really fun and reaches the same heights as games like Resident Evil 1 in terms of puzzle quality at times.
A really fun, short game that's definitely worth checking out if you like the puzzle aspects of survival horror games. It doesn't shy away from its early survival horror influences, instead it wears them proudly through it's PS1 graphic style. Very fun!! maybe pick it up on a sale or don't i dont know if you would like it i dont know who you are
